Did you know a certain kind of conversation can help accelerate your dreams and growth-cycles? They can. Certain kinds.

We are wired with a longing to be witnessed. Children say, "Mom, look at me!" We post on social media and say, "Friends/colleagues, look at me!" And there is an actual correlation between virtual "Likes," and released feel-good neurohormones, like oxytocin. Social media and neuroscience has provided a lot of data about this human craving we have to be seen and affirmed.

But our innermost part requires something more than screen-deep. Some souls do, anyway. Are you one? If so, with a trusted listener, try the following three steps to move anything forward:

Know What Needs Moving. What is it, exactly, that you want to move forward? Be as clear about this as you can because, sometimes, 'confusion' is really just a great place to hide-out... which is fine... until you TIRE OF HIDING. Take delight + responsibility in knowing WHAT MAKES YOU FEEL FULLY ALIVE. Admit you want what you want, and do not allow your dream to be shrunken by someone who just can't get it.A big goal or dream is usually a moving target. As we pursue it, both the dream + the dreamer evolve which, I believe, is the entire point of this human experience: to evolve into the wisest, most creative, loving Beings we can possibly embody. So don't be afraid to name a large dream just because you think it may be too spectacular to attain at this very moment. Just give it sound right now. SOUND CONCEIVES.

Translate Your Tremble. You need to have skin in your own game. If the stakes aren't high enough, it's easy to underachieve + even protect your own limits. Sneaky self-sabotage. So, to ensure you are "all in," give voice to the scariest part that's attached to your dream, or that's obstructing the thing that needs moving.Pull out the part that makes you tremble and, as best you can, say that thing out loud. Your first telling removes its stinger. Your second telling makes it your pet. Your third telling, of the thing that used to make you tremble, is exactly what someone else needed to get through a tough time. Congratulations, you are now paying Good Stuff forward!

Nurture, Don't Fret. Everyday, add layers of detail, specificity AND SWEAT to your dream, or to the stuck thing you're intent to move. It keeps stress down to just expect that the details will morph over time. Messy morphing is life's objective, not life's nuisance. (Morphing/transformation is) not the thing to get over, it's the thing to dive into!

Cannabis + Flow

What are your thoughts... about the article... about lavish listening... about whatever else that feels important to you? I'd love to know. Stay tuned for updates on Sativa Yoga™.

How Many?

* random acts of explosive violence will we mourn?* species will we drive to extinction?* ecosystems will we devastate?* personal dreams will we abort or deny?* human rites of passage will we commodify beyond recognition or usefulness?﻿* years will we, as a nation, continue to lead the world in trash + prisons?﻿* surface-skimming cursory conversations of zero consequence will we tolerate?* of our heartfelt stories will we leave untold?

If this message feels true to you, would you PLEASE SHARE IT WITH OTHERS? Thank you!

Prohibition is a pressure-cooker.

It creates eventual rebellion in the person or group being forbade an innate human right. Awareness is the only required ingredient to start the simmer. Awareness that life mirrors the in-flight airplane: Flying at higher altitude gives a smoother ride. Unless your pilot (read: federal law) actually prefers low-sky turbulence... benefits from it, somehow.

A great example of REBELLIOUS FRUIT is capoeira. Capoeira is a stealth martial art, disguised as dance. It was developed in the 16th century by African slaves that the Portuguese colonized in Brazil. These slaves, like all slaves, were denied the most fundamental human right of self-possession. Colonialism strips the colonized of personal sovereignty + customs that threaten exploitive predators. Capoeira evolved as a way for slaves to sustain hope, cultural memory + fighting instinct.

Sativa Yoga is rebellious fruit. It does not promote breaking any law, but it zealously promotes correcting those disastrous laws. It also promotes the PERSONAL LIBERATION of its practitioners. Its meditative technique arouses freedom in your thinking, speaking, moving, being. Soon, I'll freely share HOW TO PRACTICE it. Subscribe to my YouTube channel to get video updates.

Who I'm Built To Serve.

I've gone through a lot of personal + professional transformation in recent years. It's a marketing nightmare, as far as niches + "tribes" go... but marketing + entrepreneurial strategies will always follow my personal growth, not lead it. My "right people" will appreciate -- and recognize -- what it looks like when you cooperate with your evolution. So, to calibrate, if you are:

A Needed Third Space.

I'm grateful for the incremental progress being made regarding marijuana laws, but there is a conversation I'm looking to have -- and willing to host -- that goes beyond the bounds of medical + recreational use. I'm talking about a whole other kind of consciousness + mind-set that encompasses more than industry, business and disease symptoms. And, at the same time, it stays free + clear of any religious or cultural ideology. A conversation that recognizes, or can at least accept the plausibility, that the cannabis plant is here to bless VAST ASPECTS of our being. Limiting our cannabis conversation to medical + recreational use, ironically, keeps us bound to the same narrow, passive consciousness that permitted the prohibition to begin with... and that allows it to stand today:

No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it. (Albert Einstein)

The June 2015 edition of National Geographic accurately heralded cannabis "an embarrassment of riches." Indeed. It is a load-lightener. It has countless molecular gifts to hurl at our endocannabinoid system. It balances our autonomic nervous system. It quickly restores economic, emotional + environmental systems. If we would only get out of our own, confused way, and let this evolutionary plant FULLY do what it's equipped to do, which includes oiling dry consciousness, illuminating dark thinking and gracefully up-leveling our ideas about living together on this planet.

Yep, kumbaya, all day long! My expression is restricted, however, as I do not reside in an enlightened state, so let me now point to someone who brilliantly voices the kind of things we can be exploring in a non-sectarian THIRD SPACE. Below is a potent excerpt from Joan Bello's "The Benefits of Marijuana".Please ponder it:

To ascend the ladder of consciousness, human beings need as much help as they can get. Levels of consciousness above concerns of personal survival and power are neither necessary for human life, nor visible from ordinary states. Because these higher degrees of awareness threaten the power structure, all paths to them are often outlawed. If we are not taught by some older, wiser person that deep and timeless perceptions really exist (or unless we ourselves fortuitously catch a glimpse of these subjective realities), we remain ignorant of their existence and are easily molded into the lower social goals of materialism, competition, and power. This less enlightened state is expressed by a constant gnawing dissatisfaction. It is the dimension of perennial desire. With each fulfillment of a goal /need / want, another void erupts. In Buddhism, it is the realm of nightmarish, insatiable hunger, which cannot be resolved unless or until the being attains to a less self-centered level. Deep within each of us, an essential need for a higher meaning of life waits to be awakened. Because of its ability to unlock this yearning and allow us a glimpse of the deeper reality, marijuana is feared by the establishment and loved by the user.

The spirit of prohibition manifests as misinformed stigma, unwarranted shame + continued, collective silence. Those initiated in cannabis are needed to visibly + vocally work toward creating full vindication of + access to this mega-healing plant. Its illegality is morally, ecologically, civically + fiscally DESPICABLE. Learning about + sharing cannabis' countless benefits is one of the most efficient, high-yield acts of good we can do.And speaking of good acts...

It arouses biophilia in nature-neutral + nature-negative people (environmentalism begins *inside* us, as a strong awareness or affection... and it works its way outside us as a side-effect of love. That is biophilia.).

And so much more. This path supports you as you allow life to be the wildly radiant uprising of love + liberation that it wants to be.

Make time + space for it... for the excavation + presentation of the true you. Toss the faker-phernalia in the roaring bonfire, and SEE YOURSELF in truth-telling flames. KNOW YOURSELF, free of anyone's manipulative agenda.

Your essence. Your musk.

Spray it.

Be found by those who are actually attracted to your true self. Your true scent.

Enjoy the symbiosis of musk-made matches, in friendship, romance or business.

Share your thoughts in the comments below. Experience lavish listening for yourself. Go to my website -- empathicwriter.com -- to see a short + powerful video of Terence McKenna, and also to learn more about Sativa Yoga™.

That was the guiding question I used while writing an essay about introversion, inwardness and the inner life. I kept asking myself that question to keep me from falling into RE-search, and focus instead, on SEARCH.

It was messy.

And liberating.

And scary.

And worth it.

I realize I have come to sound angry at popular culture, for the way it has socialized us to be consumer-bots. I am angry about that, and the truest things I can say are not, necessarily, likable to mainstream society... so that is antagonistic. I mean no harm, or offense. A personal hero, Terence McKenna, said that dominant culture is not our friend. I agree. It averts the truth about things, and then asks (and sometimes forces) us to participate in a variety of collective illusions that aren't even interesting. Let alone good or wise. Each line drawn in the inherited blueprint of our life -- from school onward -- was for the furtherance of our ability to consume.

No, our highest collective pursuit is to consume. As if buying was being.

My truest thing? Cannabis advocacy.

Creating a life that actually feels like yours absolutely requires regular times of unplugging from group consciousness, so that you can come to really know your own consciousness. You might be surprised by how very different your true self is from your presented self. In my opinion, the most courageous + revolutionary thing we can do IS TO PRESENT OUR TRUE SELF. To not accommodate things + people that try to diminish our true self. This is disruptive work... to fling your mask.

Show yourself. When you have a decision to make, listen for your truest thing. Let it count. Let it influence your voice + your actions.

"The true last unexplored frontier is inner space, of each of us. We start exploring inside and say: "I don't care what I find. Whatever I find will be good, whatever I find will be real and authentic." That's when we really change things."Glenn Beck, on the Tim Ferriss Show(<--- CLICK TO LISTEN).

One-Month Check-In

It's been one month since our move from Chicago to the far south suburbs, and I am smitten!

There are a lot of changes... like the soundscape, for instance. There areso manydifferent bird-songs here. My urban ears were accustomed to picking up, maybe, ONE... and ::poof!:: it'd be quickly gone... but here there are bird CHOIRS! I recorded a sample, and am dropping it in the podcast outro. Listen out for the pretty chimes.

There's a big tree in our front yard that's home to a woodpecker -- nature's percussionist. He's replacing the guys outside my bedroom window in the city who played upside down buckets for donations. Every day. Many hours a day. So I am ready for Woody Woodpecker :-)

My sense of distance + space is changing. It feels like, "Wooooowww, there's finally room to expand..." And I don't mean expand trinkets + junk. I mean expand visions + missions. Those persistent ideas I've been carrying around -- all crinkled up in a tiny pocket, waiting for enough minutes + enough money to unfold them... decipher, practice + share them. It's not that the minutes or the money came... I just decided to stop waiting! Some people move to the 'burbs to make babies + raise a family. I moved to make art + raise consciousness.

Deep Listening

Do you resonate with my work? Have you been interested in a one-to-one phone consultation with me? I have created a special offer for you called Sacred Conversations. Visit the page by that same name -- Sacred Conversations -- on my website to learn more + to book your appointment.

IBI Available 4/20

I'm intending to have "It's Beautiful Inside: An Introvert's Right to BE" available April 20th! While writing it, I've used the following question as my guide:

"What's the truest thing I can say?"

I kept that question at the front of everything I wrote, and ended up having the most liberating experience of my life. You can expect a very surprising + transformational essay, coming 4/20.